None of the Above: Why I Hate Multiple Choice

Now as a student when I did not study well enough for an exam I knew a multiple choice exam could be make or break. For one it offered options on answers to the questions of which I had no knowledge to answer. However, there were those questions that would catch me half way.

This was the case in exams that I had over prepared for as well. Strangely worded questions with even more ambiguously worded answers. With short answer or essay I almost felt more prepared. I could do what I like to call “writing in circles” and it would appear as if I understood the concept but I wouldn’t get overly specific for fear of misquoting or disrupting this illusion of understanding.

On a multiple choice exam in college I even wrote in an extra answer to the test with a full explanation of why my answer was more correct one time because I was so frustrated with the exam’s use of overly simplified answer. My sense of understanding of a topic can be different than another’s. That is where opinion and fact meet to make theory.

And I theorize this: If you really think None of the Above is a legitimate answer option to write for a test then it best be entirely correct and not on the fringe of “pick the most correct answer”.